January 1 is not only the beginning of a new year, it’s Straight Key Night! While it’s not really a “night” (it lasts for 24 hours), Straight Key Night is a fabulous event where hams break out those straight keys and put them on the air.

Straight Key Night is not a contest…there are no points, and no logs get submitted. The object of this 24 hour event is simply to have fun. Conversational QSOs are encouraged and everyone who participates is a winner!

It runs on January 1st from 0000Z until 2359Z. There is no exchange, only to call “CQ SKN” to show other hams you are participating.

So, dust off that old straight key, warm up that fist and have a good time!

‘Twas the night before Christmas,  
And all through two-meters,  
Not a signal was keying up  
Any repeaters.

The antennas reached up  
From the tower, quite high,  
To catch the weak signals  
That bounced from the sky.

The children, Technicians,  
Took their HT’s to bed,  
And dreamed of the day  
They’d be Extras, instead.

Mom put on her headphones,  
I plugged in the key,  
And we tuned 40 meters  
For that rare ZK3.

When the meter was pegged  
By a signal with power.  
It smoked a small diode,  
And, I swear, shook the tower.

Mom yanked off her phones,  
And with all she could muster  
Logged a spot of the signal  
On the DX PacketCluster,

While I ran to the window  
And peered up at the sky,  
To see what could generate  
RF that high.

It was way in the distance,  
But the moon made it gleam –  
A flying sleigh,  
With an eight element beam,

And a little old driver  
Who looked slightly mean,  
So I though for a moment  
That it might be Wayne Green.

But no, it was Santa,  
The Santa of Hams,  
On a mission this Christmas  
To clean up the bands.

He circled the tower,  
Then stopped in his track,  
And he slid down the coax  
Right into the shack.

While Mom and I hid  
Behind stacks of CQ, 
This Santa of hamming  
Knew just what to do.

He cleared off the shack desk  
Of paper and parts,  
And filled out all my late  
QSLs, for a start.

He ran copper braid,  
Took a steel rod and pounded  
It into the earth  
Till the station was grounded.

He tightened loose fittings,  
Resoldered connections,  
Cranked down modulation,  
Installed lightning protection.

He neutralized tubes  
In my linear amp…  
(Never worked right before –  
Now it works like a champ).

A new low-pass filter  
Cleaned up the TV.  
He corrected the settings  
In my TNC.

He repaired the computer  
That wouldn’t compute,  
And he backed up the hard drive  
And got it to boot.

Then, he reached really deep  
In the bag that he brought,  
And he pulled out a big box.  
“A new rig?” I thought!

“A new Kenwood? An Icom?  
A Yaesu, for me?
An Elecraft, TEN-TEC
Or Flex, could it be!”  
(If he thought I’d been bad  
It might be QRP!)

Yes! The Ultimate station!  
How could I deserve this?  
Could it be all those weekends
I worked Public Service?

He hooked it all up  
And in record time, quickly  
Worked 100 countries,  
All down on 160.

I should have been happy.  
It was my call he sent.  
But the cards and the postage
Will cost a month’s rent!

He made final adjustments,  
And left a card by the key: 
“To Gary, from Santa Claus. 
Seventy-Three.”

Then he grabbed his HT, 
Looked me straight in the eye, 
Punched a code on the pad, 
And was gone – no good bye.

I ran back to the station, 
And the pile up was big. 
But a card from St. Nick  
Would be worth my new rig.

Oh, too late, for his final
Came over the air.  
It was copied all over. 
It was heard everywhere.

The Ham’s Santa exclaimed
What an old ham expects: 
“Merry Christmas to all, 
And to all, good DX.”

73 & Merry Christmas from the Lakeland Amateur Radio Club

(poem written by Gary Pearce, KN4AQ. Used with permission)

December 11, 2021 marks one hundredth anniversary of the “Transatlantic Test of 1921”, where radio signals sent by American amateur radio operators were first copied by amateurs in Scotland as well as England, Holland, Germany and France.

The first transmissions were only one-way due to transmitter and antenna limitations, and it would be 1923 before successful two-way transmissions were copied.

Check out the December issue of QST for more information, the ARRL website at http://arrl.org/transatlantic

73!

The annual Platinum Coast Amateur Radio Society hamfest (better known as “The Melbourne Hamfest”) is always a good one, and the 56th annual event, which also happened to be the ARRL Florida State Convention, was no exception! Attendance was good, acquaintances were renewed, there were bargains to be had and the forums were excellent.

If you’ve never made the trip over, it’s worth the drive. It’s never too early to start planning for 2022!

See you there next year!